News - Middle East: At least five Israeli troops have been killed during complex operations staged by Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli regime has been waging an unbridled war of genocide for the past 15 months.

The fatalities were caused on Saturday after the fighters engaged the forces at close and point-blank range inside the coastal sliver.

In a statement, al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, said, “In a complex operation, our fighters managed to kill three Zionist soldiers by stabbing them with knives and seizing their personal weapons.”

This is the second operation to be carried out by the fighters using cold weapons against the regime’s troops.

“They (the fighters) then stormed a house where an infantry force was fortified and killed two of its soldiers at the house gate. They clashed with the others at point-blank range in the middle of the Jabalia camp, north of the Strip.”

Attacking Pope

Also on Saturday, the regime responded brazenly to remarks made by Pope Francis earlier, through which the pontiff had laid bare the true nature of the brutal military onslaught that has so far claimed the lives of more than 45,200 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

“The Pope’s remarks are particularly disappointing as they are disconnected from the true and factual context of Israel’s fight against jihadist ‘terrorism’ — a multi-front war that was forced upon it starting on October 7,” an Israeli foreign ministry statement said.

The statement was referring to a retaliatory operation that was staged by Gaza’s resistance movements that day in the face of decades of deadly Israeli occupation and aggression against Palestinians.

The Holy See had earlier referred to the regime’s shameless way of recurrently bombing children across the Palestinian territory, saying, “This is cruelty, this is not war."

"I want to say it because it touches my heart," he said, adding that the situation in Gaza "corresponds to the technical definition" of genocide.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military blew up residential buildings west of Jabalia, while its helicopter gunships opened fire on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

Israeli warplanes also struck a house in the city of Deir al-Balah, which is likewise located in central Gaza, killing five Palestinians and wounding some others.

According to the coastal sliver’s Civil Defense Department, the regime’s attacks against Gaza had, throughout Saturday, claimed the lives of at least 20 Palestinians.

Four of the fatalities were caused after Israeli forces attacked a house in Nuseirat, which was targeted by Israeli military vehicles and gunboats.

Gaza’s Football Federation, meanwhile, reported that the genocide had cost the lives of at least 644 athletes.

Elsewhere in northern Gaza, the regime attacked the Kamal Adwan Hospital, which has been hit extremely hard during the genocide, with “bomb-laden robots” and quadcopter drones, laying a siege against the facility and pushing those inside to immediately leave the site.

Eight people were also killed and a number of others wounded after Israeli forces struck a school accommodating displaced people in the Daraj neighborhood, east of Gaza City.

‘Survival on one loaf of bread or less per day’

Separately, ActionAid, an international humanitarian organization, reported that Gazans were facing an extreme struggle to survive, with many now surviving on less than a single loaf of bread per day.

“The acute food shortage has forced both bakeries and community kitchens to close their doors,” the body said.

The organization said many families relied on community kitchens as their last hope for a single meal each day. However, several of these kitchens have been forced to shut down, leaving people without any source of food, it added.

“This dire situation is exacerbated by the severe restrictions on aid entering Gaza, imposed by Israeli authorities, as well as the skyrocketing prices of food products.”

According to ActionAid, only four bakeries were currently operational in Gaza, managed by the World Food Program. Yet, the demand for bread has grown so high that people are forced to begin queuing outside bakeries and flour trucks as early as 03:00 a.m. to secure their share, it noted.

“The price of a 25-kilogram bag of flour has surged to approximately 1,000 shekels ($273) in Deir al-Balah, as reported by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in northern Gaza.”

The organization also pointed out that food supplies had been cut off for nearly 75,000 people in northern Gaza for over 70 days.

Riham Jafri, communications and advocacy officer at ActionAid, said, "As hunger continues to be used as a weapon of war in Gaza, it is becoming increasingly difficult for people to get enough food to stay alive.”

"With no safe place to go, people are faced with a tragic choice: Either die from hunger or risk being killed or injured while waiting in food queues. The world cannot continue to watch in silence as the people of Gaza wither away. A permanent ceasefire is the only way to ensure that aid reaches over two million people in need and to prevent a widespread famine."

 Source: Press TV